World Cup: Slovak game food

On Tuesday, June 15th, Slovakia will make an appearance in its first-ever World Cup game as an independent country. The 7:30 ET match will pit Slovakia against New Zealand. Do toho, Slovensko! (Let’s go, Slovakia).

Thinking of the game I realized I have no idea what could be considered Slovak “game food”. You know, how here in the USA friends get together before football to grill burgers and hot-dogs and drink few cold ones. Well, beer (pivo) is definitely part of game watching in Slovakia. So are salty peanut flavored snacks called chrumky. But to find out more, I asked the site fans on Facebook. Here is what they had to say so far:

Few popular Slovak game snacks: lupienky, chrumky and fried dough called langoš.

Marcela: Just beer, nothing else is importantAndrea: yeah just beer or slovak chrumky..yummy yummy for my tummy..Dagmar: beer, but we eat the same things as Americans, there is no differenceSilvia: Ciganska on the grill, it can be chicken or pork and pretty lean or fat (cigánska is meat cooked with paprika and onion and served with bacon)Zuzana: I’m not Slovak, I’m Czech but I’m guessing same as in Bohemia…Pivo and pivo and pivo….Silvia: My form of ciganska – put mustard, ketchup, garlic, Worsch. sauce, one egg, seasoning salt together in a bowl and marinate the meat in it for the night or just for an hour or two…Maria: Pivo (beer), zemiakove lupienky (white potate chips), langose (pan fried dough, formed just by hand no fancy style with garlic and butter), but I think the beer is BIG ONE!Alexis: PIVO a langoseJana: plate full of cut klobasa, hard smoked cheese, mustard and rozky (rolls).Janka: Plates with cut sausage, cheese and peppers, and also open-faced sandwiches. And a lot of beer, perhaps even some slivovitz.Susan: I’ll be drinking Zlaty Bazant (available in Canada) and Spis Hruska (brought back from a recent visit to Slovakia), maybe with a plate of halusky and some maso na paticky.Hela: Slovakia Chips + Chrumky but food is not as important its the beer Topvar all day long! Come on Slovensko!Rebekah: Pivo and chlebicky (open faced sandwiches), klobasa, rozky….

Now it’s your turn. What do you consider Slovak game food? With what snacks will you be watching the games? Please leave a comment and let us know.

Boiled shunka(ham)with good rye bread mustard and pickles. Some good samali and smoke cheese. Pivo and vino. My mom says a pot of pork gulash with kapusta plus a darab (chunk) of smoked slanina Oh this is all making me very hungry

Beer and chrimky or popcorn. Maybe some salty cakes or langos. I believe that we Slovaks more drink then eat when it comes to watching soccer or ice-hockey. Oh and everytime we score we have to have a shot or two :))

the same as obložené chlebíčky but put it in oven and bake it for some 5 minutes.

If you are lazy try this.

Slice rožoky and put some butter or mayo on it, add some mustard, a slice of good smoked klobasa or salami, slice of hard boiled egg, maybe a slice of pickle, stick a toothpick to keep it together and there you go.

I don’t care much for chips and beer. I does not take much to have a tasty Slovak food for some sport event. We all got lazy!!

As most of Slovakia stops for hockey- and this is one of the first times that it will for soccer!- I can tell you a little of what it is like for the Hockey World Championship. Usually, if we are not going to the bar, then a family stocks up on beer or something stronger (vodka, slivovica, hruskovica, and borovicka being the most common in my experience). I am sure that many also have a bottle of wine ready to go. As for food, chips (crisps for the English English speakers!), chrumky (something like cheese-puffs or Cheetos, but often with a peanut flavoring), Slovak sandwiches(these are buttered fingerbreads that are topped with ham or some other meat, a pickle, a pepper, etc… but then do NOT have another piece of bread on top, like in America), and an assortment of other Slovak junk foods (pretzels and such). However, the big difference, aside from the small “sandwiches,” is presentation. Americans are apt to leave the bags open on the tables during games, and Slovaks are more likely to put them into more presentable bowls or large plates. In my family, we would start by having a cook-out (with different types of klobasa, bread, and YUMMY bacon!) and then move inside for the game. By this time, the vodka has put us into a very friendly, but game-ready mood… but don’t be fooled. No amount of alcohol can stop Slovak ire or joy at the game’s outcome!

For many pivo is a must, oblozene chlebiky would be there in my family. And as many people already pointed out, chrumky, chipsy, and tycinky would certainly make their way to the table. In some places domaca would also not be missed – just to get the blood going.

Thank you to all who have responded so far – and keep the responses going. Today I put together a short press release on this subject, feel free to send this off to your favorite blog / local newspaper, etc…

IN SLOVAKIA, SPORTS AND FOOD GO HAND IN HAND – JUST NOT AS MUCH AS IN AMERICA

Washington, D.C., June 14th, 2010 — Tuesday, June 15th, Slovakia will start in its first ever World Cup match as an independent nation. The 7:30am ET game will pit Slovakia against New Zealand. And as a Slovak living in the United States, Lubos Brieda, the founder of SlovakCooking.com, decided to celebrate in style. That is, with beer and snacks.

Beer, that is the easy part. But snacks? Lubos soon realized he had no clue what could be considered typical Slovak “game food”.

In America, sports and food go hand in hand. Baseball, for many, is nothing but an excuse to enjoy a sunny day and gorge on hotdogs. Football without a tailgate, the gathering of friends grilling burgers and drinking cold ones? Impossible! And sports bars? Well those are stocked with game specials, be it burgers, sandwiches or chicken wings.

This food and sports culture is absent in Slovakia, the young landlocked country in the heart of Europe. At least, so it seems. To find out more, Lubos contacted his friends and site fans on Facebook and asked for their input.

The first to respond was Mirka, an elementary school classmate and now a PhD candidate at a university in Bratislava. “What an absurd question”, she replied. “It’s all about drinking. So beer, beer, beer. I would like to have guacamole, but 99% of Slovaks have no clue what that is.” Palo, another friend, also chimed in: “Beer and chips. And for the snobs, open-faced sandwiches.”

But the responses kept coming and were just as diverse as the Slovak geography. The clear winner were chrumky, the peanut-topped bite size corn puffs. But langose, plate-sized pieces of fried dough topped with garlic paste, ketchup, sour cream and shredded cheese, were also a strong contender. “Gypsy roast”, combination of meat cooked with peppers, onions and bacon, also made an appearance as did “chlebicky”, the open-faced sandwiches topped with sliced smoked sausage or ham and hard-boiled egg. And of course, a lot of beer.

About SlovakCooking.com:
SlovakCooking.com is the on-line source for over 70 free illustrated recipes for traditional Slovak dishes. The site also contains articles about Slovak cuisine and notes about living in Slovakia.

I think anything is possible in this World Cup – especially after watching that really bad game calling in the USA – Slovenia game… Our next game is tomorrow, again at 7:30 in the morning (eastern time zone).

Oh hell, I think that Paraguay did us in, killing the hope for going to the next round. But lets be honest, they were the better team in that game. Sometimes I felt like there is 40 of them running around 10 Slovaks. Total mid-field domination.

Happy Holidays

Wishing you all happy holidays and all the best in 2018. Hopefully 2017 was a good year for you all.

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